48 A.L.: GRANDMOTHER
“Companion wants to come with us,” Alex reported. He spent the last two hours in a complex dance with the player that included drawings and charades.
“Are you sure?” Grandmother asked.
“As sure as I can be,” Alex replied. “I tried to tell them it could be dangerous, that we can’t control what other humans will do. I don’t know if they understood.”
“We will have to stay close to them whenever we visit the human lands,” Grandmother observed.
“As a bonus, they showed me a way to share map sections,” Alex remarked.
“Really?” Grandmother said, sitting up with interest. “Can you show me?”
“Sure,” Alex said, “let me just grab a piece of vellum.” Alex headed off to where the sofa Sarah was sleeping on was located. There was a pile of vellum sheets, blank notebooks and styluses sitting on the floor beside her. As their unofficial scribe she was given custody of all the writing supplies they found in the rooms. Alex picked up a couple sheets.
When he returned he walked Grandmother through the technique. Opening the map was a lot like paying. To pay, a player mimed pulling coins from a pouch and setting them on the pile of shadow coins. To open the map, a player mimed pulling it from their belt and unfolding it. Alex set the vellum down on a convenient surface. He opened his map and navigated over to a region. He put his hand over a section of the display and dragged it down onto the vellum. The vellum transformed to a printed version of the map.
“To add it into your map, open your map and use your open hand to drag it up to your map. You don’t have to navigate to the correct position first. It pops into the right place,” Alex explained.
“How much can you transfer this way?” Grandmother asked.
“It is limited to the size of the vellum,” Alex explained. “No matter what zoom I set on my virtual map, the printed version always has the same setting.” Alex handed the vellum to Grandmother. “I suppose a larger piece of vellum might get you more. The other limitation is it only shows one floor.” Grandmother studied the map section Alex handed her. It was part of a large greenspace with a town square on one side. There was a hatch pattern on the green that she didn’t recognize.
“Where is this section from?” she asked.
“It is the section Companion gave me showing his home,” Alex responded. Curious now where it would be in relation to their own Home square, she opened her map and followed Alex’s instruction to drag it in. The ink on the vellum vanished, which meant a location couldn’t be shared with a large group from one print. She manipulated her map and found that Companion’s home square was not the one they almost visited. Their square was farther north and even more eastward.
Only the edge of the ocean green they saw was on Grandmother's map, since they didn’t actually step into it, only looked through the glass. A close inspection of the fragment showed her the edges of the same hatch pattern that was on Companion’s green. It must be the way water was indicated.
This ability to share map content was significant, both in itself and in it showed how much they could learn from Companion and their people. Grandmother wasn’t good at politics. Her lack of skill in the area was part of the reason why she didn’t want to rule a square before Home Square. She still didn’t want to rule a square, she just couldn’t seem to talk anyone else into taking on the duty. Even she could see the long term political implications of how they treated Companion. She decided to proceed exactly as she began and deal as fairly as she could with Companion as an individual.
“If they want to come with us, I guess that is ok,” Grandmother murmured. “They are an adult and entitled to make their own choice.” She said the last words more to herself than to Alex.
“Companion will be relieved,” Alex responded. “I’ll go tell them.” Alex headed off in the direction of the sanitary facilities. The lights overhead darkened. It was evening and Companion must be enjoying their evening soak.
Grandmother looked at the open door to the transport room. There was still no indication of Todd’s return. Grandmother told herself that the delay just indicated that the travel technique was within her understanding, which was good news. She really didn’t want to get deconstructed and reconstructed elsewhere. That kind of technology in human fiction always left Grandmother thinking that the original person was dead and the clone that replaced them was just delusional thinking they were the original. People around her might not notice any difference, but wouldn’t she know she was dead? Hopefully Grandmother would never have to answer that one.
Alex came out of the sanitary facilities carrying Companion’s silks. He took them over to Ellen’s crafting area. Ellen sat down and immediately started mending them. Over the last few days Ellen crafted Companion multiple items to replace what they lost during the retreat. Those items were all in green. Grandmother could see Ellen eyeing the orange fabric.
Sarah walked over carrying the bear breastplate. The young woman set the armor down next to Companion’s hammer. Their ax was missing, Grandmother assumed it was with the player.
“I finally got this finished,” Sarah said. She ran her hand over the surface of the armor, proud of her work. “It should last for years,” she declared. She sat down in one of the grouping’s chairs. Grandmother could see the very subtle ripples of an embedded enchantment. It was very fine work.
“What does it do?” Grandmother asked.
“Same as before,” Sarah responded. “It makes the wearer lighter. I don’t know why I would want to weigh less but Companion seemed to really love it.” Sarah observed Grandmother. The older woman didn’t appear to be doing anything. That was odd. Grandmother was almost always fiddling with something. Sarah noted Grandmother’s frequent glances at the glass wall behind the sofa.
“How long do you think it will take to get to the square and back,” Sarah asked.
“I really can’t say,” Grandmother responded. “I assume it will be less than the two months it took us to go by foot.” Sarah laughed. Grandmother smiled and Sarah suddenly understood that the older woman would wait two months for Todd, if that is what it took.
The lights dimmed another notch. Sarah took out her spell diary and leafed through the spells she had accumulated. She was looking for a new subject she could use to distract Grandmother from her worries.
“Ellen has managed to get several of these stone sculpting spells working,” Sarah observed. “I was thinking about copying them out into a separate notebook and distributing them in town.” She wasn’t really thinking about it. Her words were more of an inspiration of the moment.
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“That is not a bad idea,” Grandmother said. “You could sell the individual spells on sheets of vellum, or bundle several of them together into a book.”
“Sell?” Sarah said out loud. “That seems odd to me. I was thinking more of giving them away.” Sarah knew that her sister Ellen thought Grandmother was the mad queen’s daughter, Irene. In the stories Irene would bring materials and tools to a settlement and distribute them to the disadvantaged. It seemed strange to Sarah that Grandmother would want coins. That seemed like it would limit who could get the new information to those who were already successful.
“No one appreciates stuff they get for free,” Grandmother replied. “I think that is why Control only gives us hints. Putting those hints together and puzzling out the final spell is the cost that makes us value the knowledge. Since we have done the work of solving the puzzle, others need to pay us for that labor.” Sarah thought about that one for a while. In the stories about the mad queen's daughter, Irene never directly gave anything away. She just didn’t always get full value for it. People would trick the arrogant woman, or trade something of high sentimental value but no real value. Perhaps Irene considered the effort people put into tricking her as part of the payment.
“You could open a book shop,” Grandmother offered. “Or a shop that sells books and crafting tools. I’ve thought about selling crafting tools before, but you can get them from the vendor, so I could never figure out why people would come to me.”
“If I ran a shop, how would I come on the expeditions?” Sarah asked.
“Close it while you are gone or hire someone to run it while you are away,” Grandmother suggested. “As long as the rent is paid, Control doesn’t seem to care if the shop is open or not.”
“Do you have a shop?” Sarah asked. Grandmother seemed to know a bit too much about the subject.
“I did once,” Grandmother replied. “It sold salvaged furniture. I never ran it myself. At some point everyone purchased all the furniture they wanted and there was no demand.” Furniture seemed like a great idea to Sarah. People were always short of it. In addition to the normal wear and tear, whenever the rent ran out on an apartment or shop all the added contents vanished. Sarah didn’t have any memories of Londontown, she would have to ask Ellen, but she didn’t think the problem was any less there.
Sarah suddenly visualized selling items that Grandmother’s presence transformed. She wondered if she could talk Grandmother into it. Maybe she could convince her if she sold the idea as a partnership.
“We could go into it together,” Sarah proposed. “We could sell spells, crafting tools and furniture.”
“That sounds like an emporium not a shop,” Grandmother commented.
“What's an emporium?” Sarah asked, having never heard the term before. Grandmother defined it as a whole market in a store. Sarah thought that sounded right. Ellen spent most of the market days when they were in the square selling textile products in a stall. If they put together an emporium, Sarah could invite her to join them too. Grandmother didn’t agree to the enterprise, but Sarah noticed she didn’t reject it either.
Companion arrived wearing their newly repaired orange silks. They were so distracted running their flipper-hand over the repaired rip, that they didn’t notice the breastplate until they were almost upon it. When they did notice it, their reaction was everything Sarah hoped for. The player held the metal up to the light, admiring the subtle ripple of enchantment. When they tried to thank Grandmother for the work, she very firmly redirected the player’s gratitude to Sarah.
The player put the breastplate on and danced around in it. Their joy was contagious and Sarah got up to dance with the player. Grandmother smiled at them both.
The last of the light left the overhead panels and the night lights around the sand garden came on. Sarah returned to the couch she claimed as Companion settled into the sand garden, still wearing the breastplate. Grandmother couldn’t believe that it could be comfortable, even if it was an integrated product. The player fell asleep with one flipper-hand still holding the armor.
Grandmother herself tossed and turned. She kept checking the transport room looking for any sign of change. Since the door was behind her sofa, she couldn’t see into the room without sitting up. She kept coming back to the idea that she should have gone herself. At the same time she knew she couldn’t do it all.
She was not getting younger. Lately she’d been thinking about retiring to the Speedwell and raising a couple children. Although Grandmother thought of herself as past childbearing age, the artificial wombs on the ship were still fully functional. Watching Sarah grow up made Grandmother realize she was running out of time. Her own mother, who spent all her later years inside the safety of Londontown lived to an extraordinary old age. Her father, on the other hand, died shortly after the landing, when Grandmother was just sixteen.
If she lived no longer than her father, children born this year would be in their early twenties when she passed away. Maybe sharing a shop with Sarah would be the way to go. While the young people went off on the next exploration, she could stay in the safety of the square and raise her children. She wasn’t certain if that was a good idea or not. She was still undecided if being more integrated with the structure’s systems was good or bad. Raising her children outside the structure should minimize its influence on them. If she raised children, maybe she should stay on the Speedwell.
She woke up startled. She sat up looking for the source of the disturbance that woke her. The overhead panels were still in the full dark mode of night. The room was quiet with just the sounds of her sleeping companions. There was something else. A sound, she thought, like the ringing of a bell or the striking of a gong. The memory was tied up with her dreams.
Awake now, she rose to her feet and went into the transport room, looking for any change. She couldn’t detect anything. She was just about to step back out when a deep gong rang again. The sound came from the right door. Certain now that something was about to happen, Grandmother settled in to wait.
The solid stone ‘door’ was transformed into a sheet of shimmering light. A slightly off balance figure stepped out of the wall and into the room. Todd stumbled in the darkness. Grandmother threw a light spell up, igniting the panel on the ceiling. The light curtain on the wall went out. Todd swayed, shaking his head.
“Are you all right?” Grandmother asked. She stepped forward and grasped Todd’s elbow to help steady him.
“Yes, yes,” Todd replied. “Give me a second, I think it drugged me.” He leaned against his spear and took a couple deep breaths. “It wasn’t this bad for the first trip. I guess Control doesn’t like it when you get right back in.” Grandmother waited patiently, now that she knew Todd was unharmed. He recovered in a few moments. Grandmother let go of him and stepped back against the control panel wall.
“The trip seemed almost instantaneous to me,” Todd explained. “I stepped into the light, something nudged me from behind and I stepped out. When I got to the other end it was the middle of the night, so I knew it wasn’t as quick as it felt.”
“It sounds like Control did something to knock you out. Your assumption about drugs is likely correct. Did you come out in Home Square?” Grandmother asked.
“Yes. The arrival room was off the hallway to the back door,” Todd explained. “It was an identical copy of this one. The cost for the return trip was less than what it listed for me to go there. I didn’t leave the room since I wasn’t certain I could get back in. I checked my map, and I recognized the guard on duty at the gate.”
“The glass in that hall is opaque,” Grandmother commented.
“The door was transparent from the inside,” Todd explained. Grandmother moved around Todd and peered through the backside of the door that was wedged open. It too was transparent from this side.
“How do you feel?” Grandmother asked, “Tired, hungry, thirsty?”
“When I first got out I was dizzy. Now I feel amazingly good. I don’t feel hungry or thirsty. I feel like I just got up from a full night’s rest,” Todd reported.
“Well that is good,” Grandmother responded. “If passengers are kept unconscious there would be no opportunity to eat and drink on longer trips.” She looked back at the stone door Todd emerged from. “The way you stepped out from the door makes me think we can’t send cargo alone. You still have your spear, so carrying things must be allowed.” Todd transferred his spear to his off hand and flexed his main hand.
He wondered how he kept his hold on the weapon. He suspected he didn’t and that Control put the weapon back into his hand on exit. Did he tighten his grip on instinct or did the nanobots in his blood control the muscles of his hand? Todd didn’t like the idea of his own body betraying him. He still held the spear in his hand when he exited at the other end, but he didn’t think about it. He decided he would sling the spear over his shoulder for future trips. Grandmother watched Todd’s actions and came to a similar conclusion.