"Do not doubt you are Children of the Stars. Look and see the Lume of your band all around you. When they blink, their Lumes twinkle, just as you see in the Starband above. So many colors shine on our walls, shifting and mixing as we move about."
--Fable of the Lumen.
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Several days later, Rae had Changed again as she dug out the new areas. The few days since were spent refining the five chambers and installing equipment. The foundry in the lowest basement with the exposed lava was labeled B0. The forge in the next level up was B1, where she put in a heavy force molder. Its function was to cast temporary force field containers where molten metal could pour into customizable shapes. She also cut a mount for it in B0 for when she needed to pour hard metal ingots.
The metal shop above was B2, and the level higher than that was B3, where she set up the electronics operation. She had a medium molder she planned to use in the electronics and metal shops where she'd work with softer metals cast in smaller pieces. Over the last few days, she mined raw ores in the surrounding lands located by the geo-surveyors. Rae made silica sand, iron, nickel, silver, and copper stockpiles for tinkering with the camera drones. It was a bit much to use a med-molder for the delicate items electronics needed, but it could form arrays of identical items connected in sprues for injection molding. A standard industrial technique reminded her of the plastic model kits from her childhood, but done in metals instead.
After much thinking, she had figured out how to fire clay in the most efficient way. Ceramics was a dynamic process of gradual introduction then withdrawal of heat from the clay pieces to be fired. Mostly that meant a stationary kiln where heat raised then lowered, but her source of heat was fixed in both location and temperature, and the only way to reduce its effect on something was to move it further away from the lava. Since she couldn't move the heat to the clay, she decided to move the clay to the heat.
Rae carved a 23° pitched ramp down to one of the lava pools and carved grooves into it in an extension of the forge. Constructing a framework on rails with thermometers attached, she placed a combination of gravitic impellers and grav anchors into the ramp. A program would slowly push the rack from B1 down to B0, then after the firing was complete, would pull it back to the level above to cool. After 3D modeling her bamboo roof tiles, she standardized the exterior edges, fastening holes, and undersides. Randomizing the tops to have natural-looking textures and flaws, she used the med molder to press a clean and worked clay layer into hundreds of tiles that were now firing.
After dumping the leftover clay scraps into a vat, she swept the floor and used her metal supplies to pour the raw components to improve the next batch of drones. She improved the behavior software, exhaust, and focusing array, tweaked the impeller target switching, and drove down the decibels even further. After testing them, she dispatched the mark two drones to see how they did. On the way out of the basement levels, she checked the drying room above electronics, labeled B4. It didn't need a lot of fittings, just a lot of space filled with open racks. Woefully empty at the moment, it only had a couple of bags of jerky and several bundles of washed but uncarded wool.
At the computer, Rae checked the ongoing bio studies. There was a fascinating set of videos of a river rodent beginning a new marsh pocket. He was a young adult who started to dig a circular depression in an open but level spot along the river, between two established rodent habitats. Once this was complete, he dug a narrow channel to the river until the water began trickling in to fill the broad hole. The rodent wrestled rocks unearthed from the digging to line the water channel and choke it off when it was filled enough. Over the next few days, he carried in reed roots and living crustaceans and small fish from along the river.
As the rodent tended his work, females would wander by and observe him, then move on. She realized the animal was cultivating the microbiome to attract mates. Clicking on the label of the animal, she renamed them 'Reeders.’ They were rather like a beaver without the protruding teeth but with large digging claws and an otter-like tail. Searching through her database, she found scores of these constructions, some barely bigger than this one and others many meters across. When the Reeders expanded the basic circle, they pushed it out in a cone shape with the point ending in the channel to the river.
Video from the camera blind caught a few of the felids. One of them was pale-colored, and another was dark. Each of them had similar facial markings, but each one's mark was a different color. Mostly the blind recorded the giant caterpillars, eating falling leaves or gnawing on sticks or fallen tree limbs. If the jaws couldn't make headway against a branch, the creatures would rub the hard nubs of their bone mask against it until the wood splintered, and they could worry fragments free. Digested material exited from the identical-looking rear end as a damp fine sawdust-like material. The caterpillars were solitary during the day, but they would gather at night when the near-perfect camouflage gave way to an array of green luminescent patches.
The tiny mushrooms associated with the sour smell would infrequently appear along the river. In sunlight, they were an inconspicuous speckled lavender color in sunlight, but they would emit an ethereal purple glow after sundown. Rae saw a recording of one reversing its cap and releasing its spores. Scans seemed to indicate the spores were related to the formation of molds on the reeds and bamboo. She would need to see if the mushrooms had the same odor as the mold. The released spores didn’t immediately yield new fungi growth in the area. She needed to make more observations before she could determine what caused them to grow.
The river and light forest biomes on the far side of the river were gaining fewer data points as time went on, as there was little new to see at this season. It was time to investigate someplace new. Standing on the northwest corner of the plateau farthest from the river, Rae scanned the lands beyond. North of the crag was scrub and grasslands that turned into deep plains in the distance. To the west, low grassy hills had widely scattered thickets of bamboo and a variety of trees; narrow cloudtops spires, thick and sprawling color oaks, and other types whose profiles were unfamiliar to her. There were even fewer trees to the north, mostly following meandering creeks and streams bordered by belts of green that eventually emptied into the river.
Rae set her goggles to magnify and marked the larger fauna she spotted for further investigation. A few smaller Reeder habitats bordered a stream that ran past the crag. At a mud-choked watering hole, there was a group of slender gazelle types whose horns lay backward in a sine wave, drinking while keeping a cautious eye out for predators. Dozens of klicks out in the deep grasses were a few hulking animals approaching the size of elephants, with massive down swept horns. Two different types of large raptors turned lazy circles up in the air currents, while a smaller raptor stooped down on prey by the nearby stream. A dust cloud to the northeast resolved into a line of stocky onager-like animals.
Her view extended for many kilometers from up on the crag, but down at ground level, Rae knew the scrub and tall grass would shorten that range considerably. Ducking down into the dig, she packed some drones and some tools onto the skyboard. Following the stream northward, a sense of impending discovery filled her. The whole reason she'd chosen this place for her home base was the variety of distinct biomes in such a small area; waterway, woods, hills, and plains, not to mention that of the plateau itself was.
The water reeds and the rodents that cultivated them became less common as she left the riverside behind, and the average size of the Reeders decreased. Her bio-samplers confirmed the grassland Reeders were a related subspecies from the ones she'd been observing, tending to smaller wetland pockets. A kilometer out, a new waterside grass took over from the tall broadleaf bordering the river banks. They gave off a pleasant scent, and dried examples of it twisted together better than the more tender blue-veined river grasses. While she looked at the grasses, she found medium-sized canid prints impressed into a dried spot near the stream.
When the plateau had shrunk in the distance, she spotted a purplish mauve color under the water, where a smaller stream merged into the one she followed. Curious, Rae waded out and examined it, pulling handfuls of lavender clay with finer particles than the stuff she used for roof tiles. With a texture like that of porcelain, she foresaw making dishes and cookware with it, with blue and purple glazes dripping over contrasting colors of underglaze patterns and etchings. Pleased, she bagged some of it and noted the location in her maps, adding the material to her geo-survey database.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Leaving the fork in the streams, she heard hooves ahead of her and crouched, pulling the board down with her. Tucking her goggles under the straps of her bags, she changed to her jaguar totem. Lowering herself, she stalked closer, blending her dark body to the brush and grasses as much as possible. At the edge of a game trail, Rae watched a group of the onagers amble by. Unlike the other ungulates cataloged, they only had two hoofed toes instead of the usual three. They were angular like a zebra or a wild ass, perhaps filling the role of a primitive horse-like creature. Too small to ride, they could pull a cart, or carry packs, possibly. They had a central horn prominent on their forehead with two brow horns on either side. As they moved past her, she noted their lashing tails forked into several branches partway down its length.
Changing back, she heard small birds tussling in the undergrowth. Ducking to look, she saw them contesting for a clump of white fibers. She set two of her drones to track them, to know why they wanted it. One seized the prize and flew off, eventually landing on a nest and adding the fibers into gaps in the weave. Recalling the drones, she sent them to find more of the threads in the vicinity, and before long, she sat on her board to examine some of it. Her scanners verified it was a plant-based fiber, and when she teased it apart, it seemed to be of fine cottony quality. She picked out the seeds and put them in a bag for cultivation. The drones did a systematic search for more of the fibers and the plants that made them.
After wandering a few hours collecting the clumps, she found a meadow with a mix of old and new stalks of a tall branching annual plant. The older plants looked like a skinny corn stalk with fig-shaped pods on the end of a few slender branches. The recent growth had immature bulbs on all of its limbs. The edges of the clearing were thick with the fibers and dried pod shells. As she watched, the wind stirred a tangle and flung it aloft, carrying it away. They were like dandelion seeds on steroids, with the fluff evolved to spread the plant far and wide. She began to fill a bag with dried pods when one exploded in her hand, making her jump. Tearing open at the seams of the hard outer shell, it released a cloud of suddenly decompressed fluff. It was a lot like holding a giant popcorn kernel when it went off.
She took a bit more care with them after that. It wasn't as if they could hurt her, but they took up far more room when the pods were broken open. As she cleared the old stalks, she bent them over near the roots to get out of her way. When she'd removed half the meadow's worth of unopened pods, she spotted something about a stalk as she bent it. Kneeling, she found they had a layer of fibers running vertically around a woody core. Could it be? Using her belt knife, she cut the stalk loose and slit it in two, peeling off the papery outer skin. These fibers also had potential, and she'd have to see if she could ret them like hemp or flax. She shook her head. The universe held marvels, and this plant was one of them.
The sun was low on the horizon when she finished gathering pods and bundles of last season's stalks and returned. She'd store it all away until a day she wanted to do chores around the camp. Bringing her board in the dig, she saw the computer blinking a notification. A rare late afternoon visit by a grayish felid proved to be an opportunity for the mark two drones. The camera approached more slowly and at a lower elevation. The felid paused and looked around, causing the drone to freeze. After the cat moved on, the drone experimented to see how close it could come. It was a function of the nearest distance for filming that didn't drive the cat off. It still seemed fidgety at the drone’s presence, so she had more work to do in that department.
As she put things away, the back of her neck prickled. She felt a sudden empathy with the cat because it felt like she was being watched. When the muscles between her shoulder blades cramped, she spun about to see her Shadow looming just behind. "Hello, Rae," it said with a dark mocking tone. Not daring to look away, she shook her head slowly. It was just an aberrant part of her mind, wasn't it? A schizophrenic symptom of her mental breakdown? She wanted to turn her back and ignore it like she did when leaving Monkey, but she felt threatened this time, like she was in danger.
The Shadow tilted its head. "Au contraire, it is you who are the aberration." It took a step forward, and she had to take a step backward, unable to bear it coming closer. "You can feel it, can't you? How much stronger I am?" Shadow advanced again, and she retreated once more. "I am the version of you that will leave this place, and there is nothing you can do about that." It backed her up another step as a quick side glance told her it aimed to pin her into a corner. "I will correct the way your upbringing warped you to imagine the filthy carbon-based hominids were worthy of your attention. We've already covered the debacle that was your first lover."
Her back seized as it touched the wall unexpectedly. Shadow chuckled, "Jumpy today, aren't you? Who was next? That groupie girl, do you even remember her name? From when you were playing at being a 'rock star,’" it made finger quotes as it spoke.
'Josana. Her name was Josana.'
"Hmm, yes, and long since dust. She was so worthless you had to get smashed on your own booze to couple with her." It shrugged dismissively, "Maybe we'll unpack more of that at some other time. But right now, I want to talk about your so-called 'spouse.’"
She frowned. 'What about Jeol?'
"Precisely! Him. He was a single-gendered hetero mortal, and you twisted his nature to be your plaything."
Rae shook her head, 'I didn't do anything to him. He chose to be with me.'
Shadow chuckled again, "Do you really believe that, with all the ways you have to manipulate someone's mind? Think of the family he had when you met him. How do you think he went from that to being your love puppet?"
She snarled. 'Human sexuality is more complex than that. He understood what I was and adapted because he loved me. He shared his memories with me, so I know.'
It scoffed. "Keep telling yourself that. You could put any thoughts you wanted in his head, and he would never have known the difference. And when he was 'converted' to be like you so you could breed? Despite how he and the others that followed ape at being Qard, they are still mortals at their slimy, rotting cores." It leaned closer, leaning against the stone with one hand, barring her in on that side. "In the end, he's just like Raliard and would end up betraying you. You know this to be true, or why else did you abandon him? Something you should have done centuries ago, by the way."
'I did it to protect him, from... whatever you are!' Rae gestured at the manifestation looming before her. 'And if anything… if anything, he was the more faithful between us.' It stung for her to say it, but she had to defend Jeol.
"Only because he was too witless to realize he wasn't enough for your appetites. I find it stupid why you stay bound to such a pitiful creature."
'Shut it. Just shut up!'
“Make me.” The darkling teal helmet came so near that it almost touched her nose. She swung her fist at it, only for it to catch her wrist in a crushing grip. After letting her struggle futilely to free herself, the Shadow raised its other arm high and brought its elbow down on her mid-forearm. The flare of pain coincided with the wet snap of her bone breaking. Her eyes went wide with shock.
"So pathetic and weak." Shadow beat her with fists and boots, slicing her with psi blades, until she was a bloodied heap on the floor, curled around her broken arm and trying to shield her head. It finally stepped back, wiping her spattered blood off its visor. Over the roaring in her ears, she heard it speak again as it faded away. "You could have been so much more if you hadn't fixed your star to those filthy animals."
Rae whined quietly, trying to reboot her stunned brain. Her clothes were smoking because she'd been unable to shield them from the heat of her spilling blood. She drew in the heat around her sharply, and the now hardened blood cracked and flaked off her skin. What... was all that? How could a part of herself even do that? She wanted to cry but refused to allow herself that further weakness.
It was dark in the dig. The only light she could see were flickering indicators from the computer and reflections of the glow of her eyes on nearby surfaces. The main entrance opened to the southwest, and light wouldn't come in until morning, many hours away. Until light did come in mere moments later, in the form of a brightly glowing felid only half the size of the adults she'd been watching. It padded over to sit beside her, looking down with what she thought was a concerned expression. Another hallucination, it had to be.
"I am not a hallucination," it said, waving tendrils in the air. Rae knew that voice. Like the Light itself, Kruegar, the Maker's assistant, was an energy being able to take any form it wished.
'What do you want, Kruegar?' she thought tiredly.
A golden tendril reached out and drew itself along one of her lacerations, leaving the white line of a scar behind. "I wish to help you, Rae."
'Go away. I'm dangerous. Even to myself.'
"But not to me." Another tendril touched her, and another cut was healed. "And you don't outrank me, so I can disregard your wishes." Patiently it found all her open wounds and closed them, nudging her to move this way or that to allow access. "Besides, I owe you."
That confused her. 'How's that?'
"If not for you, I'd still be in Limbo instead of free this last millennium."
'Oh, that. I was rewarded already for that.' Her good hand tapped the mass of scars on her forehead where she'd worn the Crysfire Gem.
"That was the Light's doing. This is my personal show of thanks. I'm going to help you sit now; please cooperate." Innumerable golden tendrils reached out to put her upright and lean her back against the stone wall. Another wrapped around the wrist of her uninjured arm and drew it across her body to her other bicep. "Hold your upper arm tightly." The tendrils took hold of her swollen arm below the break.
'Wait, no, what….' Her thought broke off into a pained vocal cry as Kruegar pulled back firmly, drawing her bone back from the break. It aligned the bones, then relaxed the pressure slowly while tendrils wound tightly around her forearm to keep them in place. The glowing feline form rumbled to her as warmth built up from her break, soothing her pain away little by little, her consciousness fading along with it.