Benjamin was sitting in his chair supervising his daughter as she pulled the loaves from the oven. She stacked them on the cooling racks with a smooth movement.
“Granddad,” Sean, the oldest of Benjamin's grandchildren, called from the door to the shop, “your sister’s come to visit. She has a bunch of people with her.” Which Benjamin knew meant that Irene had brought the walrus man with her. Benjamin rose to his feet with a little effort.
He may be getting old, but he was still in good shape. Irene saw to that, dragging him off to the Speedwell for periodic treatments of his age related complaints. He employed his daughter to help with the workload, but the bakery was still his.
He walked out into the shop to find his sister waiting with just a single young man at her side. He could see a crowd of others out on the street along with two carts. The walrus man was out there together with a small white figure in a child’s ship clothes and wearing a crown. That one was new.
“Irene,” Benjamin said with a smile. “It is good to see you. We don’t usually see you in the summer.”
“It was a special trip,” Irene responded. “Valin needed some medical care.” She leaned forward to give her brother a hug. When she released him she directed his attention to the young man next to her. “Benjamin, I don’t know if you’ve met Todd,” she said. “Todd, this is my oldest brother, Benjamin.”
“We have met, sir,” Todd said, offering his hand to the older man, “but I didn’t realize you were Irene’s brother.”
“Todd,” Benjamin said politely in return.
“Todd is my heir,” Irene announced. “If something happens to me, he will sort out things on the Speedwell for you.” Benjamin looked at Todd a little closer. He recognized the boy from the group that came around in the winter. They fixed the warehouse trading center and transported the ill or injured up to the Speedwell for treatment. Todd bought a lot of fresh bread from the shop. Benjamin heard rumors Todd was always on the lookout for spices as well. It was fixed in Benjamin's mind that Todd was the ship’s cook. If Irene thought he could run the ship, he was obviously more.
“I’ve come to introduce Valin to the village. He’s an elf. I stepped in here ahead of time to warn you to be careful around him. I don’t think he’s entirely trustworthy,” Irene admitted. “I’d appreciate it if you could pass that warning around.”
“If you don’t trust him, why did you bring him?” Benjamin asked.
“I thought it would be better if you met him with the warning than without. According to him, his people are thick on one of the southern continents. I can’t predict if or when more of them might turn up. Valin appears to be a bit of an outcast,” Irene explained. “If you can come outside for a moment I’ll introduce you.”
“Let me grab my sun hat,” Benjamin announced. Sean was already holding the hat out for his Granddad. Benjamin led the way out of his shop, stopping to wait on the boardwalk outside the door for Irene to introduce him. The youngest of the girls rushed forward to get introduced first.
“This is Sarah and that is Ellen, her sister,” Irene said, indicating the other woman who stood slightly back.
“It is a pleasure to meet you sir,” Sarah said, as she squeezed Benjamin’s hand in both of hers.
“Then there is Alex,” Irene continued, naming the remaining human in the group, before moving on to the aliens, “and Companion, who I hope you’ve seen before. Companion is a selkie. They live in coastal villages along the western coast south of here.” Which was a simplified explanation of a square in the structure. It was meant to be more understandable for an elderly man living in a village of his own.
“It is an honor to meet the brother of the Elder,” the walrus man said. Benjamin was startled. The words were spoken in a high squeaky voice, but they were perfectly understandable. He never heard the selkie speak for itself before. Irene saw his startlement.
“That ring on his head is a translator,” Irene told her brother. She made the voice that came out of it high and squeaky because she couldn’t conceive of Companion sounding any other way. “I put one together for Valin. I realized rather belatedly that it could help Companion communicate with people that don’t understand selkie and made one for him too. It uses noise cancellation to muffle his own voice and project the translation instead.”
Benjamin noticed now that the selkie also wore a crown. It was a thin ring of stainless steel settled down over his head.
“And finally Valin,” Irene said finishing her introductions. “His own language sounds like a rough growl to me. None of us have learned it yet. He’s from one of the southern continents.”
“Sir,” Valin said, nodding his head in acknowledgement of the old man. The new addition was about the same height as the selkie, but very slight. His skin was a white that almost sparkled. He had long slim hands with only four fingers. His bald head sported large black eyes and small pointed ears set too high. One of the ears was pierced by a gray ring. The translation crown was settled onto his head just below his ears. His nose was two curled slits, too far apart. When he spoke, Benjamin got a quick flash of sharp teeth.
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“Welcome to Woodheart,” Benjamin said to the group. “Would you like me to show you around?” They took him up on his offer.
After the tour, Benjamin sat with his sister on a convenient bench near the front of his shop. Irene’s companions continued to wander around the village, catching up with acquaintances and making small purchases. Todd bought several loaves of bread from Benjamin’s shop. The selkie was playing with a group of children on the green. Benjamin was amused that such a large being seemed to find joy with the young.
“I was surprised to hear the selkie speak. I know the others claimed they spoke for him, but he always seemed more like a pet to me than a man. He seems so much more human now,” Benjamin observed.
“I guess I did Companion more of a disservice than I realized not finishing the translator. I started putting it together when he first joined us, but in order to get the data to make it work we had to learn each other's languages. It didn’t seem like he needed it after that,” Irene commented.
“How did you make the translator for Valin then? You said none of you spoke his language,” Benjamin asked.
“He has a translator of his own that only works in the structure,” Irene answered. “I had him use it to create the data. The data set is a little shallow, so I’m sure there are plenty of words it won’t work on. It should be enough to get by.”
“Valin seems a little… worn out,” Benjamin observed. As they walked the shops and Benjamin introduced the shopkeepers, the little elf lagged behind.
“Valin is a dangerous figure in the structure. He is experiencing a bit of culture shock right now. I am sure he will recover,” Irene explained. Irene didn’t want to try to explain that the elf was suffering from the loss of his nanobot boosts.
“By the way,” Irene said, “There is another entrance to the structure to the east of here, in the next valley past the woodland.”
“How do you know?” Benjamin asked.
“The advance ship took pictures of it from orbit,” Irene said. “It didn’t recognize it as anything. Knowing what we do now, it is easy enough to identify.”
The advance ship picked this valley to land the colony ship because it was one of the few places on the planet where it did not detect ‘subterranean abnormalities’. A map of those abnormalities was a map of the structure. The advance ship didn’t do any detailed mapping of the oceans, since the Speedwell was designed to touchdown on land, so Irene was still in the dark about what was out there. Its scans of the land masses showed the structure under ninety two percent of it. It even stretched out under the poles. There were six major continents on the planet. There were two spots on each continent with no structure underneath and multiple structure entrances nearby. The spots varied in size and natural landscapes. The other one on this continent appeared to be composed entirely of a swamp.
Sarah, Alex and Companion spent the first evening looking at the data. Even Companion forgot about watching the replays of the arena challenges. The selkie was perhaps the most fascinated with the satellite scans. He had never seen the whole of his world before.
When Todd, Ellen and Valin joined them at the Speedwell, they all went up to the ship’s flight bridge where Irene used the holographic projector to display a composite image of the entire planet. The tank wasn’t used since the landing. Irene was proud that it still worked.
Valin pointed out the continent his people were from, even as he studied the two smaller continents in the other hemisphere. He admitted he didn’t know about them after some questioning. One of the landing sites on Valin’s continent was so far south that when the satellite went over it it was covered in ice. The second looked like an active volcano was at one end. Both were thrown out by the advance ship as unsuitable.
“Considering the spacing between the first two entrances, there should be another one south of here, but I couldn’t spot it on the satellite photos,” Irene explained.
“Do you think the selkie and elves are native to this planet?” Benjamin asked.
“No,” Irene responded. “I think they came from the stars just like us. I have reason to believe that we are the forty second thinking species to arrive on this planet. I don’t know how many of those species are left alive.”
“I worry sometimes that we made a mistake not giving our children the scientific education available on the Speedwell,” Benjamin commented. “If I tried to have this conversation with my children they wouldn’t understand half of it.”
“The educational machines are still functional,” Irene commented. “You can use them to teach your grandchildren.”
“There are too few of us left who remember how to operate them,” Benjamin countered. “We are all too old to deal with young people all day.”
“What if I set up classes during the winter, when my team is here for maintenance?” Irene asked.
“I don’t think anyone would want to travel that much in the cold months,” Benjamin admitted.
“The students would need to live on the ship during the term,” Irene commented, “that will take longer to set up. I will have to charge tuition, so I can buy food from the villages to feed the residents.”
“That would be good. It would limit it to serious students,” Benjamin responded. “Too many of the young dream of an easy life.” That sounded like what the old always thought about the young since humans first stood upright, Irene thought. On this planet it could lead to different problems.
“Do many young people enter the structure?” Irene asked.
“Before this conversation I would have said none did,” Benjamin responded, “because I know the entrance is west of here. Now that you told me there is one to the east, I am not so certain. We have a lot of woodsmen disappear. I thought they were tangling with wild animals and getting killed.”
“If I set up a school, would you want me to teach your grandchildren about the structure?” Irene asked. “Knowledge of it might increase their chances of surviving it, but it might also serve as a further attraction.”
“I would like my grandchildren to know the truth. Like how those recordings Command released of the inside showed both the good and the bad. Everyone is different. I am sure some parents wouldn’t like it,” Benjamin replied.
“Hmm…” Irene murmured. “I’ve got a lot of commitments right now. I am going to have to think about this one for a while,” she told her brother.
“Irene, you don’t have to fix it. It was our mistake not educating our young not yours,” Benjamin assured her. Irene nodded her head in agreement, but she was already thinking about the problem. Fixing things was part of what an engineer did. Making new designs for the future was another.