Daughter of Orion Page 4

  ~~~

  Soon after I'd come to Gam Tol, there was a night like this. After a feast of evening sacrifice, all of us in the crystal-city came out onto the mesa under a clear night sky in which Thil-i An Om, the Stars of the Great Crystal-Shaper, rode high. We sang old songs, danced the dance that we've just danced here, and settled down to hear stories.

  That night, Grandfather Dor-Sad told them. He told first the ones that Lona said read like myths: the tales that from the Stars of the Great Crystal-Shaper came down a crystal-ship carrying a man and his two wives, the elder a Crystal-Shaper and the younger a Companion. With the three Tani in the ship came the three species of livestock, the twelve species of plants, and a jar of bu. Landing on the mesa on which the crystal-city now stood, the three founded the old, underground city of Gam Tol, from which the Tan would spread throughout the ring of Desert.

  Dor-Sad's audience murmured approval; he'd told his story well. He went on, though.

  "All of you know that, throughout the seven thousand years of the Tan's history, many have sought the crystal-ship that brought our ancestors here. Others have tried to make crystal-ships, but all failed till, through the wisdom that Holy Light gave me, I learned the secret of making the great crystals, some forty years ago.

  "In the crystal-ships that the Tan could at last make again, brave souls went to the stars to find the world from which our ancestors came. The explorers flew first towards Orion" -- yes, he actually used the English word, which I heard then the first time -- "but found in its direction only barren worlds where life had never taken root. Expanding their search, the explorers found ruined worlds where life had once been, but had been extinguished in inconceivable cataclysms."

  Poor Grandfather, all too soon you would conceive of them. That night, though, he was unaware of his words' irony.

  He went on. "When we Tani did find a world with life, we found it, not with the crystal-ships, but with the speaking-crystals. When we turned these towards a dim star in the Sheep Constellation, we heard a babble of voices, none of which we could understand. Following them to their source, we found Ul Har, or the earth, as its inhabitants call it. This is a world where water is as common as sand, and whose inhabitants are billions to this world's thousands."

  Murmurs of disbelief greeted Dor-Sad's last sentence. Smiling, he went on. "You doubt me, but those who've gone to the earth -- your Kan Tan among them -- can bear witness to what I say. Although the humans, as the earth's inhabitants call themselves, are shaped like us, they're inwardly different from us. In behavior, they're nothing at all like us. Whereas we have one appearance, one language, and one faith in Holy Light, the humans have many appearances, many languages, and many faiths.

  "The humans' manyness divides them. Some of them even kill each other as individuals and as whole communities. The humans have even made means of killing that can destroy this whole mesa in a flash of light."

  Murmurs of disbelief mingled with murmurs of fear. Dor-Sad's audience looked at the Kan Tan and sighed when he nodded.

  One brave soul called out, "Are we descended from such horrors?"

  "As far as I know, no," Dor-Sad said. As his audience relaxed, he went on to say, "The humans are inwardly different from us, lack our gift of crystal-shaping, and are just now learning to cross the stars. Whatever the humans' origin is, it's separate from ours."

  "Let them stay separate from us!" another brave soul called out.

  Dor-Sad shook his head. "In time, they'll find us. We must be ready to deal with them. Wisely, Kan Tan Yar-On, who walks with Holy Light, decided that the Tan should secretly study and travel to the earth. Kan Tan Sor-On follows his grandfather's wise policy. The Tan has made contacts in a land called America, from which our brave travelers have brought back wonders to show us both the promise and the threat of Ul Har."

  I had many questions. I've no doubt that many others had many more questions, but all of these went by the wayside as Dor-Sad produced his wonders. They formed a grab-bag of items that are now parts of my daily life, but were then like visions of heaven. There was a box that made sounds and showed moving pictures. There was a woodwind vastly more complicated than the Tan's best bone-flute. There was a two-wheeled metal frame on which Dor-Sad assured his listeners they could ride as if on a lex. None wished to try the metal steed.

  Among other items there were pictures of humans -- red and yellow, black and white, as the song goes in Sunday-school. One picture showed a set of scantily clad humans standing on a strip of sand between a patch of grazing-plant and a strange sky-colored expanse that stretched to the horizon.

  "Look!" I called out. "The humans have blue sand."

  Grandfather snickered. "That's water, Mira."

  I nodded as if I believed him, but, of course, I didn't.

  Wise, artistic Sil-Tan is frowning at me. "Your account raises more questions on the Tan's origin than it answers."

  "It's the best that my grandfather could do. Dr. Ventnor would tell me his own thoughts on origins, but they come later in the story."

  To myself, I think, Dor-Sad also had more thoughts on origins, but they, too, must come in their proper time.